JP2005037837A - Printer and host device to issue printing instruction to printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To continue an appropriate printing processing even in the case of detecting that the paper is back-side paper (paper whose one side has been already printed) in double-side printing. <P>SOLUTION: When the printer receives a double-side printing instruction from the host device, it reads each side of the paper and judges whether the paper is the one whose both sides are blank or it is the back-side paper (S502). On judging that it is the back-side paper, the printer notifies the host device of the judgement result (S508). The printer driver of the host device displays a dialog picture to inquire how the back-side paper should be processed on a display according to the notification. Then, "2up printing" is included in the dialog picture as a choice. When a user selects the 2up printing, the printer receives the result of selection from the host device (S510), and reduces the original images of two pages, which are originally intended to be printed on both sides of the paper (back-side paper) and prints the reduced images side by side on the blank side of the back-side paper (S518). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to control of printing on a single-side recorded paper (so-called “back paper”) in a printing apparatus.

  In recent years, from the viewpoint of effective use of resources and cost reduction, there are many occasions where the back side of a paper whose surface has already been printed is reused as copy paper or print paper in an office. Such a single-sided printed paper is generally called a backing paper. However, on the other hand, the print side of the paper set in the paper feed tray or cassette differs depending on the model. There is also a problem that paper and consumables are wasted in return, such as executing double-sided copying or double-sided printing without noticing that the backing paper is set.

  In order to solve such a problem, for example, in Patent Document 1, a large number of reflection type photosensors are provided below the sheet feeding unit, and are set in the sheet feeding unit based on detection signals of the reflection type photosensors. An image forming apparatus is described in which it is determined whether a sheet is a backing sheet and displayed on a display panel. This allows the user to know whether the paper to be fed is plain paper or backing paper, and if the paper is the backing paper, take measures such as replacing the paper or selecting another tray. Printing can be performed.

  Further, in Patent Document 2, the presence / absence of printing on the printing surface of the recording medium to be fed is detected by a black sensor, and when it is detected that the printing surface has been printed, the feeding path of the recording medium is switched. A printing apparatus for storing in a discard tray is disclosed. Also, in this document, when it is detected by the black sensor that the front or back surface of the recording medium being fed is printed, the detection result is notified to the host computer, and the recording medium is discharged to the discard tray. Or a mechanism for requesting a user operating the host computer for an instruction to take measures such as switching the paper feed source to another cassette.

  In Patent Document 3, the status of the printer body, that is, the type and size of the paper set in the paper feed tray and the status of the paper discharge tray are ascertained through bidirectional communication between the printer driver and the printer device. A system for displaying on a screen is disclosed. In this system, the type of paper (size, backing paper, etc.) stored in each paper feed tray is registered in advance in the printer device, and the printer device feeds paper to the printer side based on this registration information. Inform the tray information.

  Each of the above prior arts can avoid the waste of printing an image on the backing paper, but is insufficient in processing when the backing paper is detected during double-sided printing.

  In other words, these conventional techniques disclose processing for switching to single-sided printing or canceling printing when a backing paper whose front side (side to be printed) is detected during double-sided printing is detected. Yes. However, the method of switching to single-sided printing has a problem that the number of sheets used increases. In the method of canceling printing, a double-sided print job is interrupted if a back paper is mixed in a bundle of blank papers, so that complicated work is required when resuming printing.

JP-A-6-255842 JP-A-8-171245 JP 2000-305745 A

  The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and even if the back paper is mixed in the paper feeding unit of the printing apparatus, the paper saving equivalent to double-sided printing can be achieved without stopping the printing process as much as possible. The purpose is to be able to.

  The present invention is a printing apparatus that executes printing on a sheet in response to a print instruction, reads a sheet to be printed, and determines whether or not the sheet has been used on one side; When it is determined by the backing paper determination means that the paper has been used on one side and the print instruction is double-sided printing, the two-page image to be printed on the paper is reduced and the paper is not used There is provided a printing apparatus including a printing control unit including a backing paper reduction printing function for printing on a surface.

  “Paper” is not limited to paper, but includes any printable recording medium. In addition, “used” means that the side of the paper is “used” means that the side has been printed or filled in, and “unused” means that the side has not been printed or filled in. Say.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention (hereinafter referred to as an embodiment) will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a printing system to which the present invention can be applied. As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system includes a printing device 10 and a host device 20. In this example, it is assumed that the printing apparatus 10 and the host apparatus 20 are connected via a communication network such as a LAN (local area network). However, this is not essential, and both may be connected by a communication interface such as USB (Universal Serial Bus).

  The host device 20 is a computer system such as a personal computer, and issues a print instruction to the printing device 10. The host device 20 is installed with a printer driver for sending various instructions and data including a print instruction to the printing apparatus 10 and receiving various information from the printing apparatus 10.

  The printing apparatus 10 includes a ROM (Read Only Memory) 102, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 104, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 106, a printing mechanism 108, a paper feeding unit 110, a paper inspection sensor 112, and a network. An interface 114 is provided. These units are interconnected via a bus or the like.

  The CPU 106 controls the operation of each unit in the printing apparatus 100 by executing a control program stored in the ROM 102 while using the storage area of the RAM 104 as a work area. The printing mechanism 108 is a general term for parts that perform physical operations for printing, such as paper conveyance, image formation on paper, fixing, and paper reversal for double-sided printing.

  The network interface 114 is a communication control device for data communication via the LAN, and the printing apparatus 10 communicates with the host device 20 on the LAN via the interface 114 to receive various instructions including a print instruction, Send response messages and error messages to instructions.

  The paper feed unit 110 is a mechanism that feeds paper to the printing mechanism 108 and includes one or more paper feed trays (cassettes).

  The paper inspection sensor 112 is a sensor that reads a surface of a paper used for printing and inspects whether or not the surface has been printed. Various variations of the sheet inspection sensor 112 can be considered in the sheet feeding unit 110 and the installation form of the sensor 112.

  For example, there is a form in which a sensor 112 is provided above the paper feed tray of the paper feed unit 110 and the upper surface of the uppermost paper on the paper feed tray is read. When the printing mechanism 108 has a paper transport system that feeds the uppermost sheet in the paper feed tray and uses the upper surface of the sheet as the surface to be printed, according to this sensor arrangement, with respect to the surface to be printed on the sheet, Whether printing or writing is being performed can be determined for each sheet fed. In addition to this, if a sensor 112 that reads the back side of the paper (the back side of the printing target surface) is provided at an appropriate location in the paper transport system, both sides of each transported paper are unused (here, A state where printing or writing is performed is referred to as “used”), and four states can be determined: only the printing target surface is used, only the back side is used, and both sides are used.

  Of course, such a sensor arrangement is merely an example. In addition to this, a configuration in which a group of sensors 112 that read the upper and lower surfaces of the paper is arranged at a position where the paper is picked up from the paper feed tray to the conveyance path is also possible. is there. That is, there is often a gap between the paper exit of the paper feed tray and the conveyance path. Therefore, if the paper inspection sensor 112 is provided above and below the gap to inspect the front and back surfaces of the paper. Good. In this case, as the sensor 112, for example, a line sensor extending in the paper width direction (perpendicular to the transport direction) can be used.

  The above is a sensor configuration for inspecting each sheet of paper on the paper feed tray, but it includes whether the paper bundle stored in the paper feed tray is double-sided white paper or back paper. Other sensor configurations are possible if only a rough inspection is required. For example, a paper inspection sensor 112 is provided on the upper and lower sides of the paper feed tray, and the lower sensor 112 reads a transmission hole or the like on the lower surface of the paper feed tray so that at least a part of the lower surface of the paper at the lowest position of the paper feed tray can be read. For example, a transmission window is provided. In this case, the state of the sheet bundle on the sheet feeding tray is simply determined based on the combination of the detection results of both the upper and lower sensors 112. For example, if the sensors on both sides output a signal indicating that the paper surface is not used, it is determined that the paper bundle on the paper feed tray is not used on both sides, and one sensor is used for the paper surface and the other is not used for the paper surface. When a use signal is output, it may be determined that the sheet bundle is the back paper.

  Note that the arrangement configuration of the sheet inspection sensor 112 exemplified above is merely an example. Various configurations of sensors for inspecting the presence / absence of printing / filling on the paper surface have been proposed in the past, including those disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 listed above. Configuration can be utilized.

  The control program of the printing apparatus 10 determines the state of a sheet fed as a printing target or a sheet (or sheet bundle) on a sheet feeding tray based on the detection signal of the sheet inspection sensor 112. Hereinafter, for the sake of easy understanding, this determination processing is referred to as “backing paper detection processing”.

  In the present embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 2, when the host device 20 issues a double-sided printing instruction, the printing device 10 that has received the instruction executes a backing paper detection process and notifies the printing device 10 of the result. . As a result of the back paper detection process, if the paper (or paper bundle) is a back paper, the printer driver of the host device 20 displays a dialog screen showing options for changing the processing contents on the display and is selected by the user. Accept. Here, the option group shown on the dialog screen includes an option “switching to 2up printing (processing to reduce two original pages and print them side by side on one side of the paper)”. The printer driver receives the user's selection result for the dialog screen, creates a processing instruction corresponding to the selection result, and transmits the processing instruction to the printing apparatus 10. The printing apparatus 10 executes processing according to a processing instruction corresponding to the selection result.

  Next, an example of a processing procedure when a double-sided printing instruction is issued from the host device 20 in this printing system will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. In this example, the backing paper is determined at the start of the print job, and the processing content for the entire job is switched according to the determination result.

  FIG. 3 shows a part related to the present embodiment in the processing procedure of the printer driver of the host device 20. In this procedure, when receiving a double-sided printing instruction from the user, the printer driver creates double-sided printing instruction data for the document data to be printed and transmits it to the printing apparatus 10 (S302). In response to this, the printing apparatus 10 executes a backing paper detection process before starting printing, and the printer driver receives a notification of the processing result from the printing apparatus 10 (S304). If the notification indicates “no backing paper”, that is, the sheet bundle used for printing is not backing paper (both sides are unused) (the determination result in S306 is N), the printer driver prints normally from the printing apparatus 10. The process ends after waiting for a message to notify the end. On the other hand, if the notification of the back paper detection processing result indicates that “back paper is present”, that is, the sheet bundle used for printing includes the back paper (the determination result in S306 is Y), printing starts when double-sided printing is started as it is. Alternatively, since there is a possibility of printing on the side where the entry has been made, the printer driver displays a dialog screen (referred to as a “back paper detection notification window”) for requesting processing instead of double-sided printing on the display (S308). .

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the back paper detection notification window 40 to be displayed. In this example, GUI (graphical user interface) buttons 42, 44, and 46 indicating processing to replace double-sided printing are shown. The GUI button 42 is a button for instructing to switch to single-sided printing and continue printing. The GUI button 44 is a button for instructing to switch to 2up printing and execute printing. The GUI button 46 is a button for instructing to cancel the printing process. The printer driver receives an instruction from the user through this window 40, generates processing instruction data corresponding to the instruction (S310), and transmits it to the printing apparatus 10 (S312).

  Next, an example of a processing procedure of the printing apparatus 10 when a double-sided printing instruction comes from the host apparatus 20 will be described with reference to FIG.

  When the double-sided printing instruction is received, the printing apparatus 10 executes the back paper detection process using the paper inspection sensor 112 (S502). Here, for example, the sensor 112 inspects the front and back surfaces of the top sheet of the paper feed tray selected by the user's explicit instruction or the default selection rule, and based on the inspection result, both sheets are It is determined whether it is unused, only the front side is used, only the back side is used, or both sides are used.

  In the figure, as a procedure of this determination process, it is determined whether both sides have been used (S504), and if this determination result is negative (N), it is determined whether one side has been used. However, this is just an example.

  If it is determined as a result of the determination in S504 that both sides of the sheet have been used (the determination result is affirmative (Y)), the printing apparatus 10 executes predetermined error processing (S522). For example, the error processing includes discarding the double-sided printing instruction and transmitting an error message to the host device 20. In addition to this, various processes used in the prior art can be used as error processing when both sides have been used.

  If the determination result in S504 is negative (N), it is determined in S506 whether or not the sheet has been printed on one side. If the determination result in S506 is negative, both sides of the sheet are unused, and the printing apparatus 10 executes the instructed duplex printing process (S514).

  On the other hand, when only one of the front surface (the surface to be printed this time) and the back surface has been used, the determination result in S506 is affirmative. In this case, the printing apparatus 10 temporarily suspends the printing process, temporarily stores the print target data, and transmits a notification indicating that the backing paper has been detected to the host apparatus 20 (S508). The selected processing instruction is received from the host device 20 (S510). Then, the printing apparatus 10 determines an instruction from the host apparatus 20, and executes processing according to the content of the instruction.

  That is, if the instruction determined in S512 is “single-sided printing”, the print target data received at the time of the first double-sided printing instruction is printed by single-sided printing (S516). Here, when only one side of the paper is used, there are cases where only the front side is used and only the back side is used. When only the back side is used, normal single-sided printing is possible. What is necessary is just to perform a process. On the other hand, if only the front side has been used, it is necessary to turn the paper over using the paper turnover function for double-sided printing and then perform single-sided printing. In order to avoid such a complicated process, when the front side of the sheet is used, it is determined that both sides of the sheet have been used regardless of the state of the back side, and error processing (S522) is executed. It may be.

  If the instruction determined in S512 is “2up printing”, the print target data received at the time of the first double-sided printing instruction is printed in the 2up printing process (S518). Again, it is necessary to change the processing depending on whether the used side of the paper is the front side or the back side. That is, when only the back side has been used, the normal 2up printing process is executed. When only the front side has been used, the paper is turned over using the paper turnover function for double-sided printing, and then 2up printing is performed. Execute the process. Also in this case, in order to avoid complicated processing, when the front side of the paper has been used, it is determined that both sides of the paper have been used regardless of the state of the back side, and error processing (S522) is executed. It may be.

  If the instruction determined in S512 is “print cancel”, the printing apparatus 10 cancels the pending print processing and discards the print target data (S520).

  The processing procedure described above with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5 switches the processing of one entire job based on the backing paper detection processing result at the start of printing. When only one print target data for one sheet is included in one print instruction from the printer driver to the printing apparatus 10, there is no problem in the above processing. However, in the system configuration in which print target data for a plurality of sheets of paper is passed to the printing apparatus 10 with one print instruction, a problem occurs when double-sided white paper and back paper are mixed.

  In order to avoid this problem, it is desirable to execute the backing paper detection process for each sheet fed from the sheet feeding unit 110. A processing procedure of the printing system when such a processing policy is adopted will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 6 shows the main part of the processing procedure of the printer driver of the host device 20. In this procedure, when the printer driver transmits a double-sided printing instruction to the printing apparatus 10 in accordance with a user instruction (S602), the printer driver waits for a process completion notification from the printing apparatus 10 in response to the instruction (S604), and receives the process completion notification. Then, the process is terminated assuming that the print instruction is completed.

  Here, before the processing completion notification is received from the printing apparatus 10, the printing apparatus 10 notifies the processing result of the back paper detection process. Therefore, when receiving a notification from the printing apparatus 10, the printer driver determines whether the notification is a processing completion notification (S604). If the notification is not a processing completion notification, the content of the back paper detection processing result indicated by the notification Is determined (S606). Here, if the result of the back paper detection processing indicates that both sides of the paper are unused, the printer driver does not perform any processing and waits for further notification from the printing apparatus 10 (S614).

  On the other hand, if it is determined in S606 that the paper is a back paper, the printer driver displays a back paper detection window on the display of the host device 20 and waits for a user instruction (S608).

  FIG. 7 shows a display example of the backing paper detection window 70 in this case. In the processing described with reference to FIGS. 6 to 8, the flow of determining the sheet state one by one and switching the print processing contents for that sheet when the sheet is the back sheet is used. Three of the 78 except the “Print Cancel” button 78 indicate how to handle the paper determined to be the backing paper. The GUI button 72 is a button for instructing to perform single-sided printing on the unused side of the backing paper, and the GUI button 74 is for instructing to perform 2up printing on the unused side of the backing paper. It is a button for. The GUI button 76 is a button for instructing to skip the printing process for the backing paper and select the next paper as a printing target. The GUI button 78 is a button for instructing to cancel the entire duplex printing job currently being executed.

  The printer driver receives an instruction from the user through this window 70, generates processing instruction data corresponding to the instruction (S610), and transmits it to the printing apparatus 10 (S612). After this transmission, the printer driver waits for a further notification from the printing apparatus 10 (S614). If a notification is received, the printer driver repeats the process according to the above flow. When a print job completion notification is received from the printing apparatus 10, the printer driver ends the processing for the job.

  Next, the processing procedure of the printing apparatus 10 corresponding to the processing procedure of the printer driver shown in FIG. 5 will be described with reference to FIG.

  In this procedure, when receiving a double-sided printing instruction, the printing apparatus 10 executes a backing paper detection process for each sheet supplied to the printing mechanism 108 (S802). In this process, when it is determined that the next sheet to be subjected to the printing process has been used on both sides (the result of S804 is affirmative), the printing apparatus 10 executes a predetermined error process similar to S522 in FIG. (S824). As the error processing, similarly to the back paper skip processing described later, a process of simply discharging the double-sided used paper and printing an image of a manuscript page that was scheduled to be printed on the paper on the next paper or later. Can also be adopted.

  If it is determined by the backing paper detection process that the paper to be printed next is not used on both sides (the determination result in S806 is negative), the printing apparatus 10 determines that the paper is double-sided as originally directed. Printing is executed (S814).

  If it is determined by the backing paper detection processing that the next sheet to be printed is only used on one side (that is, the backing paper) (the determination result in S806 is affirmative), the printing apparatus 10 Before printing is started, the printing process is temporarily suspended (temporarily stopped), and notification is made to the host device 20 that the backing paper has been detected (S808). In response to the notification, the printing apparatus 10 receives an instruction sent from the host apparatus 20 (S810), and determines the content of the instruction (S812).

  If it is determined in step S812 that the instruction content is “single-sided printing”, the printing apparatus 10 uses an image of the first page of the two pages of the original image that should have been printed on the backing paper, and the unused backing paper (S816). This completes the processing for the backing paper, but if the processing of the print job is not completed at that time (determination result in S826 is negative), the processing from S802 is repeated on the next paper.

  If it is determined in step S812 that the instruction content is “2up printing”, the printing apparatus 10 reduces the two-page original image that should have been printed on the backing paper, and 2up on the unused side of the backing paper. (S818). Then, the process returns to S802 and shifts to processing for the next sheet.

  If it is determined in S812 that the instruction content is “back paper skip”, the printing apparatus 10 discharges the back paper to the discharge tray without printing, returns to S802, and shifts to processing for the next paper. In this case, the manuscript page that should have been printed on the backing paper is printed on the next and subsequent sheets.

  If it is determined in step S812 that the instruction content is “printing cancel”, the printing apparatus 10 cancels the pending printing process and discards the print target data that is the target of the double-sided printing instruction (S822). After the processes of S814 to S820 described above, it is determined whether or not the job is incomplete (S826). If incomplete, the process returns to S802 to perform processing for the next sheet. It ends.

  The preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above. When it is detected that the paper is the backing paper during double-sided printing, conventionally there was only an option of canceling the printing itself or switching to single-sided printing, whereas in this embodiment, the option of 2up printing has increased. If the user selects 2up printing, the number of sheets used can be saved to the same extent as double-sided printing.

  Also, if the paper is a backing paper, single-sided printing is performed only on that paper, and if the next paper is a double-sided white paper, the process returns to double-sided printing. However, if the 2up printing is performed on the back paper, the page order of subsequent printing results may be shifted (that is, the combination of the manuscript pages printed on the same paper is shifted). Such problems can be avoided.

  In the above-described embodiment, the printing apparatus 10 notifies the host apparatus 20 of the backing paper detection result, and the host apparatus 20 displays a user interface screen that requests selection of alternative processing according to the notification. Therefore, even if a backing paper is found on the paper during double-sided printing, the user can know the fact by the host device 20 that issued the double-sided printing instruction and can instruct alternative processing.

  In each of the above examples, the printing apparatus 10 temporarily stores the print target data of the print job whose print processing has been suspended due to the detection of the back paper, and when a new instruction is received from the host apparatus 20, the primary storage of the print target The printing process was resumed using the data, but this is not essential. Instead, when a back paper is detected, the printer driver of the host device 20 creates a new print instruction including document data to be printed in response to a user instruction to the back paper detection window, and sends it to the printing apparatus 10. It can also be sent. In this case, when receiving a new print instruction, the printing apparatus 10 resumes the printing process using the print target data included in the instruction.

  Further, in the above embodiment, when the printing apparatus 10 detects the backing paper during double-sided printing, the host apparatus 20 is notified of this, but instead, the printing apparatus 10 itself has a user interface display. A dialog screen equivalent to the above-described backing paper detection notification window 40 or 70 may be displayed to request a user instruction. When the printing apparatus 10 is a copying machine and a copied document input to the copying machine is copied, it is preferable to display the dialog screen on the local display of the printing apparatus 10 in this way.

  Further, in the above embodiment, when the printing apparatus 10 detects the backing paper at the time of duplex printing, the user is inquired how to handle the backing paper (that is, alternative processing). Instead, the processing procedure may be such that 2up printing is performed uniformly on the backing paper.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a printing system to which the present invention can be applied. It is a figure which shows the rough process sequence of a printing system. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of a printer driver of a host device. It is a figure which shows an example of the dialog screen displayed on a host apparatus at the time of backing paper detection. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a processing procedure of the printing apparatus when a double-sided printing instruction is received from the host apparatus. 6 is a flowchart illustrating another example of the processing procedure of the printer driver of the host device. It is a figure which shows another example of the dialog screen displayed on a host apparatus at the time of backing paper detection. 10 is a flowchart illustrating another example of the processing procedure of the printing apparatus when a double-sided printing instruction is received from the host apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

  10 printing device, 20 host device, 102 ROM, 104 RAM, 106 CPU, 108 printing mechanism, 110 paper feed unit, 112 paper inspection sensor, 114 network interface.

Claims (6)

A printing device that performs printing on paper in response to a print instruction,
A backing paper determination means for reading a sheet to be printed and determining whether or not the sheet has been used on one side;
When it is determined by the backing paper determination means that the paper has been used on one side and the print instruction is double-sided printing, the two-page image to be printed on the paper is reduced and the paper is unused A printing control means comprising a backing paper reduction printing function for printing on the surface;
A printing apparatus comprising:   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing control unit performs a printing process when it is determined by the backing paper determination unit that the sheet has been used on one side and the printing instruction is duplex printing. Pause and provide the user with processing option information including the implementation of the reduced paper size printing function as an option, accept the selection result from the option included in the processing option information from the user, and according to the selection result for the paper A printing apparatus that performs processing.   3. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the processing option information is not printed on the paper determined to be used on one side, in addition to the implementation of the backing paper reduction printing function, as the option. A printing apparatus including an implementation of a sheet skip function for feeding a next sheet.   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing control unit performs a printing process when it is determined by the backing paper determination unit that the sheet has been used on one side and the printing instruction is duplex printing. When the host device that has paused and instructed the printing on the paper has notified that the backing paper has been detected, and the host device has instructed the implementation of the backing paper reduction printing function in response to the notification, A printing apparatus that executes printing for the backing paper reduction printing function on paper. A host device that gives instructions to the printing apparatus according to claim 4,
When receiving notification from the printing device that a backing paper has been detected, processing option information including the implementation of the backing paper reduction printing function as an option is provided to the user, and from the options included in the processing option information, A host device comprising printer driver means for receiving a selection result from a user and transmitting an instruction corresponding to the selection result to the printing apparatus. A printing processing method in a printing apparatus that executes printing on paper according to a printing instruction,
Read the paper that you want to print, determine if the paper has been used on one side,
If it is determined in this determination that the paper has been used on one side and the print instruction is double-sided printing, the two-page image to be printed on the paper is reduced and printed on the unused side of the paper To
Print processing method.

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